My files seemed to have disappeared...

[kendahlj]

I recently installed a new motherboard. The computer is running okay -- it has a few glitches that I think will be fixed with a fresh Windows XP install. But what really puzzles me is that I can't find the files on my F: drive. This is a third HD that is running off an IDE PCI adapter card. I can access the drive and it shows it is full, but most of the files are "missing" ... one directory that i know had hundreds of files is empty. Any thoughts?

[Soopafresh]

Remove the second drive temporarily and see if you can access the files on F:

[Bodyslide]

Double check to make sure you didn't hide the folders. Make sure in the folder options, you choose to show all hidden files..

[redwudz]

Did you replace a motherboard and not put a fresh installation of XP on the boot drive? If so, you may have some problems from that, though it should not effect the drives contents.

And since you changed out the motherboard, double check all the drive connections, power and IDE. You may have a cable problem, though again, that should not effect the drive contents.

Or worst case, the drive may have picked this time to die. You could run 'Error Checking' on it from the drive properties page.

I would not write anything to that drive until you resolve the missing files issue. I would reboot the system a couple of times, but if you get nowhere, you might want to look into a data recovery program.

And welcome to our forums.

[kendahlj]

I'll give those a try. I am hoping a repaired install will fix all the problems I seem to be having (files burn on a CD but are unreadable on other computers, won't let me uninstall programs, freezes up when trying to load drivers, missing files, etc). I really don't want to do a re-format and reinstall since it's a complete pain in the bum.

[redwudz]

Sometimes you can get away with a repair install, but if the motherboard is a different brand or model or not exactly the same, you will probably end up having to do a repartition/reformat as the best method.

But give it a try. And yes, it is a pain to do a clean install. But it cleans up a lot of 'crap' in your system that seems to accumulate after an OS runs for a while.

[kendahlj]

The repair installation didn't work. I was able to use an old 6GB hard drive for a clean install so I could back up all my files from my main drive before formatting. I also was able to retrieve my files from the third HDD -- I installed a new driver for the Ultra100X2 card and they just appeared. Weird...

Thanks for the help everyone...